The Politics of Food Conference was a complete success! Thank you so much to those of you who organized the event and worked so hard to put it all together. Honestly, I didn't know exactly what to expect when I first arrived, as it was my first time attending a business conference, but before it was over I was able to see very clearly the vision that was so carefully orchestrated by the ELP's dedicated staff.

Here's a snapshot of exactly what collaborative magic transpired there:

We were welcomed to North Carolina State University by none other than the honorable Eva. M. Clayton, former Congresswoman of NC and current Assistant-Director General of the United Nations and Agricultural Organization - an incredibly accomplished and inspiring African-American woman and role model. Following her warm welcome were a series of workshop sessions; I chose to attend Worker Justice as an Element of Sustainable Food. In this session I was able to learn more about the injustice facing many low-wage and immigrant workers in the agricultural industry including those often overlooked in the fishing and restaurant business.

One of the main issues presented by this very passionate panel of social justice advocates is the reality that agricultural workers - from one end of the food chain to the other - are not valued for the various contributions they make in our society. On top of that, these workers have no real access to the agricultural goods that they are producing while their families often go without decent wages, health care, and/or sufficient training with regard to safety issues. What's more troubling is that they frequently suffer rampant abuses at the hands of their employers when they dare to speak out and organize against such injustice.

Although depressed by the reality I heard described for and by these workers, I feel very encouraged by the future in which GreenRight will offer them a choice, perhaps for the first time, to afford healthier and more sustainable choices as consumers and thus the ability to enjoy the fruits of their own labor. The prospect that those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, including immigrant workers - one of the most disenfranchised groups of people across our nation - will have the transformative opportunity to drive our markets and by extension our planet to a greener destination (quite literally with the advent of affordable hybrid vehicles) speaks to the power of collective good as little else can.

Another important concern addressed in this session was the current lack of a comprehensive eco-labeling system - one that provides transparency on a variety of issues including worker justice.
This oversight is also exciting for us at GreenRight, for it is yet another area in which our organization will help bring cohesion to the marketplace through the employment of its innovative eco-branding initiative. As a result of this discussion, we are even more committed to finding ways to include the ethical treatment of workers in our effort to provide transparency of GreenRight-branded products to consumers. In doing so, we aim not only to educate consumers so they may become both social activists and philanthropists amidst their day to day shopping routines. We also seek to encourage the move toward corporate responsibility, or "the high road" as Saru Jayaraman would say, by recognizing and rewarding ethical businesses, including those that treat their workers fairly, a critical aspect of the food-justice movement.

This leads me to my next topic and event: The Business of Sustainability. In this plenary session I listened to highly successful business leaders speak to integral strategies and rewards with regard to exciting new business models, partnerships, sustainable practices, and marketing efforts. The speakers included representatives from Honest Tea, a growing alternative beverage company that's developing partnering strategies to float its product into the mainstream; Niman Ranch, a flourishing company in the mid-west that is cycling sustainable meat products into our marketplace; and finally Equal Exchange, a cooperatively structured company that provides a growing variety of sustainable products via economically just partnerships with small scale farmers in different regions around the world. Thanks to this garden picked variety of compelling business entities, I found this discussion riveting, informative, and enormously useful for determining the different options available to GreenRight in its founding stages.

Of the three businesses represented in this session, I found Virginia Berman's description of Equal Exchange particularly interesting, as she addressed her company's unique hybrid cooperative structure featuring member ownership and capped dividends for her company's "values driven investors." This approach seems to inherently embrace the ideal of making enough as opposed to maximizing profits and we at GreenRight commend this approach as we recognize the need to rethink the "American Dream" within the context of a more sustainable and just society. However, in listening to Ms. Berman speak about some of the challenges her company faces with regard to growth and distribution, I realized that innovation requires nothing if not more innovation.

Emphasizing this point, Ms. Berman spoke of the financial obstacle of putting Equal Exchange products on grocery shelves when vendors today charge astronomical fees to do so, thus creating higher overall production prices that burden companies and consumers alike. Here it would seem that mainstream retail establishments are dictating a dilution of driving principles when companies like Honest Tea negotiate mergers with megalithic companies like Coca-cola in order to increase their product distribution and stimulate overall growth. In contrast, touching on the 'grow or die' mechanics of capitalism, Ms. Berman spoke of searching out alternative distribution methods such as through faith based organizations, schools, and non-profit groups that will increase visibility while avoiding opaque mergers with growth-oriented companies. As such, her company's vision appears to be a valiant effort to transform our current market rather than to grow a new one.

Interestingly enough, this discussion drew out a question from the audience regarding the affordability of Equal Exchange products, specifically how people of color and other economically disenfranchised consumers could embrace such ideals and/or products. Ms. Berman acknowledged that it was an important issue and one that her company was currently seeking solutions for. Of course at that point I was percolating with excitement in considering what a tremendous opportunity GreenRight will bring to the table. As a purely not for profit venture focused on green equality, GreenRight will give companies and consumers alike the opportunity to green the marketplace with value-driven incentives in new, far-reaching ways. Just imagine a GreenRight storefront facility that offers authentically green brands like Equal Exchange to a third of the population - currently disenfranchised by prohibitive upfront costs - at superstore prices. Talk about increased visibility and potential growth for GreenRight-branded producers and affiliate partners!

But do the poor in our society really care about living green? At first glance, the answer might simply be "No" given the many other hardships facing those struggling just to make ends meet. However, looking at the issue more closely we can find convincing reasons to believe that the poor - largely women and children - do in fact care enough to buy healthy and environmentally friendly products. Given a mother's instinct to ensure the welfare of her child, green living seems to be the natural option when the opportunity is there and other factors do not overshadow the ability to make healthful choices.

More Than the Corner Store was probably the most exciting workshop, for the panelists there were really able to address this question by providing solid evidence that low-income individuals and neighborhoods will embrace greener lifestyles when given the choice. In this session, Paula Ford first took a turn exploring links between food quality/availability and climbing obesity rates in the country, her studies focused in Kansas. Next, James Piett, from The Food Trust discussed his recent venture to transform a dull and listless canned-food corner store into a more sustainable and competitive business that brings fresher and healthier foods to disenfranchised areas in Philadelphia. Brahm Ahmadi concluded the session with his dynamic spiel about the People's Grocery out in CA, in which he described his holistic approach to engaging members of Oakland's impoverished community in order to progress the sustainable food movement. Needless to say, the content of these conversations really got my wheels turning in all kinds of directions considering GreenRight's future storefront facility here in mid-western Virginia. Following a brief introduction with both Mr. Piett and Mr. Ahmadi, I look forward to exploring their successes more in depth and inviting them both aboard as advisors, for what better way to ensure GreenRight's long-term success than by drawing upon the experience and practical wisdom of such committed pioneers within the field.

Leaping from one to another, later that afternoon we were handed our lunches and loaded up on buses for selected field trips; I chose the Wayne County Community Foods System Initiative. Our first stop was a gorgeous community garden that was designed, planted, and is maintained by the ladies at the public library including local citizens and youth from their various programs there. Here we met some pretty incredible women including Shorlette Stephens, the warm and inviting Head of Children's Services there at the library who casually described a very gracious philosophy of trusting folks to take what they need, in which she revealed a precious and rare faith in our humanity. We also met Danielle Baptiste, coordinator at Dillard Academy, who spoke to us about the CASTLES down to earth gardening curriculum and the improvements made by the youth involved in the program. Ms. Baptiste then introduced Ms. Cheryl Alston, a school teacher who decided she was up to the SOL challenge and its restrictive guidelines and so created a remedial educational program using sustainable gardening studies at the elementary school in Wayne County. Ms. Baptiste proudly reported that over 90% of the students who participated in the program, students who had below average grades, had exceeded their grade level by the following year as a result of her innovative teaching strategies - wow, what an accomplishment! Finally Tes Thraves, a consultant from the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, touched on some of her true and tested organizing methods stressing the importance of taking stock of existing community assets in an effort to start building from the ground up, an approach that appears to be a wildly successful and one that I won't soon forget.

After hearing about these interconnected environmental disciplines, we departed for the elementary school in Wayne County where we were greeted by a host of teachers, aids, and community members who had gathered together to commemorate the achievements of the children involved in the gardening project. What came next nearly brought everyone in the room to tears: the children gathered around their music teacher and keyboardist to present two very creative and powerful music ensembles that they had created - not to tote the values of a MTV music culture but to celebrate the joys of fresh vegetables and healthy eating habits! It was the most heart-warming experience I'd had in a long time, all the while munching on the delicious pear preserves and biscuits they had prepared especially for us. The moments of vulnerability, hope, and pride that flickered across their faces as these children strutted their stuff before our teary-eyed audience was a powerfully moving experience. In fact, it left my cheeks sore from permagrin and the incalculable joy of it all. Now that was some real Southern hospitality!

As you can imagine, not much could match the experience pictured above, yet the conference continued with the plenary session Debating the Politics of Food, which I was sorry to have missed part of as a result of getting back from the field trip later than expected. Then on to day three: panel discussions on Kitchen Table Revolutionaries: How Food Activists are Changing the American Food System followed by Roadblocks Ahead: How Disaster Assistance Programs Prevent the Growth of Sustainable Markets, both sessions less specific to the mission of GreenRight, but none the less interesting and important areas to explore. Next came a plenary session focused on Equity and Justice in the United States Food System which really tied so many aspects of the conference neatly together in a passionate discourse between the speakers and audience. The conference concluded with one last plenary session which addressed the question Do We Need Genetically Modified Organisms? a discussion that really highlighted the different paradigms of thought in a continuing debate of science verses nature.

In conclusion, this conference was like a carefully seasoned stew, with the representatives of every sector gathered together to add their unique flavors of innovation. And yet, while the main dish was filling and enjoyable, it clearly lacked a major ingredient, for the problems GreenRight is working to address were on the lips of everyone there at one point or another. Not only did this conference confirm the overwhelming need for GreenRight's services, it afforded me the ability to begin building a strong network with other community leaders and professionals around the country. The connections that were established there are of utmost importance, as we need all the support we can get to move forward with GreenRight's mission.

As for my own professional development, I had plenty of opportunities to practice my pitch and work on striking just the right balance to create lasting first impressions and potential partnerships moving ahead. Through my successes and failures on the stump, I learned some very useful tips on sharing my vision for GreenRight, although I concede that I had a pretty receptive audience for the most part. You know what they say: 'practice makes perfect' and I'm certainly hoping for the opportunity to continue my professional development in San Francisco at SOCAP, a conference specifically focused on presentation skills among many other critical aspects of social entrepreneurship!

Now for the most important part of this report: I want to acknowledge that I could not have had these remarkable experiences nor could I have accomplished GreenRight's strategic goals without our donor's generous support, so I thank you with all my heart for helping make the Politics of Food Conference happen for me. These kinds of training and networking events offer unprecedented opportunities both for me and for GreenRight to grow and to progress. Every chance I get to attend one, then, only strengthens GreenRight's potential for bettering the lives of individuals and of the planet.

In closing, I look forward to sharing more inspirational missions and success stories from talented social entrepreneurs and investors across the country, for in reflecting upon the Politics of Food Conference in this newsletter, I have grown ever more determined to go. Thank you so much for sharing in this exciting experience with me and for your continued support - together we can make a difference!